Two Welding Scholarships: The First Recipients

We didn't make it easy. Applicants had to submit a 500-word essay about why they wanted to weld, a letter from someone who knew them, and a short video showing a project — any project — they'd built with their hands. The videos were the hardest part to judge. Some were a cutting board. Some were a dog house. One was a quarter-scale model of a 1936 tractor built from scrap aluminum.

The first recipient is Jake Morales, 24, of Tucson, Arizona. Jake works two jobs and has been saving for three years to enroll at Pima Community College's welding program. His video showed a steel garden arch he built for his mother's yard out of rebar he salvaged from a job site.

The second recipient is Jamal Washington, 31, of Baltimore, Maryland. Jamal is transitioning out of a career in landscaping and into fabrication. He enrolled at the Community College of Baltimore County last fall, and we're covering his spring and fall tuition plus a gear package. His video was a coffee table made from a reclaimed steel I-beam.

Both of them are going to school because they want to build things. That's why we did this, and that's why we'll do it again in July.